schwatzgelb.com | Hated club, hard to handle

Hated club, hard to handle

Do it again, young guns! Besides blue-white scum, there are not many clubs in Germany that you really have to hate. However, there are still clubs like Wolfsburg who are hated because they would not be anywhere near Bundesliga without some investor standing behind them. The best – or should I better say worst? – example of a club which simply is no club at all but some sort of retort squad is our next opponent, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. The use of the founding year of the club should transmit some sort of tradition. However, there simply is none since the club was never important at all – until a rich investor had nothing to do in his spare time and decided to support a club which then needed only 18 years to make it to German Bundesliga.

Dietmar Hopp always says that his involvement in the club is something which comes from the heart since he played for Hoffenheim in his youth. However, nearly everyone in Germany knows that this is just an excuse and other words for "I have time, I have money, I want to become a legend in a little town which has around 3.000 inhabitants and which nobody cared about before I got here." Now, he has his own stadium and is known over in Germany. He doesn't care about all the hatred coming from football fans all over the Bundesliga even though he often feels attacked by open criticism (supporters of Borussia once presented a banner which showed Hopp with crosslines on his head, Hopp then complained and basically whined about the fact that nobody likes him – is that really a surprise?). However, let's get away from all the hatred I feel about that man and let's get to speak about the match in Hoffenheim. Sadly, the ground in the Rhein-Neckar-Arena is a worse ground for Borussia than it should be.

Lewandowski will get the time to shine again After having beaten Hoffenheim during the German cup run to Berlin in 2008 with 3-1, Borussia and TSG have crossed ways for six times in Bundesliga competition. At home, Borussia could not beat the blue-whites who however where not able to beat us as well. Three ties in Westfalenstadion (don't forget about the free kick taken by Antonio da Silva last season) are facing 2 defeats and one victory when playing in Hoffenheim. The only victory is two years away now, Kuba and Sahin scored at the 1-2 in 2009. The last match in Hoffenheim got lost 1-0 with Ibisevic scoring the only goal of that day. Borussia therefore should be warned since the Deutscher Meister did not look very good against the team of Hopp over the last few years. Hoffenheim was the only club which did not get beaten by Borussia over the last championship season.

However, some changes were made in Sinsheim (where the club actually has its ground) this year. With Ralf Rangnick going to some unimportant club in the Ruhr area, Holger Stanislawski left St. Pauli to step in for him. Of course, some transfers were taken once again with Sven Schipplock coming from Stuttgart, Fabian Johnson leaving Wolfsburg (changing from one pathetic club to another) and some others which I do not want to enumerate right now. It should be said that the team of Hoffenheim has some quality especially in the offense and the club should be expected to find a place in the upper midfield even though they lost to Hanover on day one.

A duel we could see on Saturday - Bender vs. Salihovic Jürgen Klopp eventually found some clear words concerning the fans traveling to Hoffenheim on Saturday and formulated a clear appeal: "The chants for our team are less than the ones in other matches. One is too engaged in dealing with the other story. For us, it is about three points and not about explaining tradition and less tradition. It would be great if we all could just focus on the game." Doing so, let's talk about the personal issues Kloppo has to face. Marcel Schmelzer is back in training but not at 100% yet so Chris Löwe will probably step in for him again. Neven Subotic is still out just like Lucas Barrios and Patrick Owomoyela so it is likely that no changes will be made to the starting line-up in comparison to last week. A little question mark is set behind Shinji Kagawa who travelled around the whole world to score twice for Japan on Wednesday. Ivan Perisic could be a replacement, but I would count on Kagawa being ready to play since he has enough to catch up for his injury last year. On the other side, Hoppenheim (pun intended) is missing Gulde, Ibertsberger, Jaissle, Sigurdsson, Vukcevic, Ibisevic and Weis.

Banners against Hoffenheim - always there After the media went nuts on Borussia and on the performance of Mario Götze in the national squad against Brazil over the last week, expectations about underlining the impressions of last Friday are high. We were praised into heaven over the last seven days and were seen as the upcoming championship winner just 33 days before the end of the season. I do not want to stop euphoria about Borussia and I don't see any reason why. We will see how the media will react to the outcome of the match in Hoffenheim which is nothing more than a match for three points – and probably about something more since this hated club deserves every victory they get. So go on, young guys. Go on to show that all of you are still hungry. Hungry enough to win in Hoffenheim, hungry enough to gain another victory. Go on, young guys. Go on!

Possible line-ups

TSG Hoppenheim: Starke - Beck, Vorsah, Compper, Braafheid - Rudy, Salihovic - Obasi, Babel, Johnson – Schipplock
Subs: Haas - Klingmann, Simunic, Vestergaard, Kaiser, Roberto Firmino, Zuculini, Mlapa, Musona, Tagoe, Thomalla

Deutscher Meister 2011: Weidenfeller - Piszczek, Santana, Hummels, Löwe - Bender, Gündogan - Götze, Kagawa, Großkreutz – Lewandowski
Subs: Langerak - Schmelzer, Kehl, Leitner, da Silva, Perisic, Zidan, Kuba

Referee: Deniz Aytekin
Attendance: Rhein-Neckar-Arena is sold out with 30.150 supporters, visitors and rich guys who have nothing to do with their spare time

Vanni, 12.08.2011

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Les
Posts: 6

Re: Hated club, hard to handle
Reply #6 on : Fri August 12, 2011, 09:35:37

Without significant financial backing, no small club can join the elite, that's a fact of life, as soulless as it sounds. To hate a club for being small and previously 'irrelavent' is pretty soulless too, do you want the Bundesliga to be a closed shop? Kick out anyone who is too puny enough to have never won a trophy and abandon promotion and relegation? That would be no less soulless than a pet project club such as Hoffenheim. Small clubs shouldn't just give up, but to make it to prominence needs a fair bit of money.

BIG kiss
Posts: 6

Re: Hated club, hard to handle
Reply #5 on : Fri August 12, 2011, 09:43:17

BVB will get 3 point easily!!

Vanni
Posts: 6

Re: Hated club, hard to handle
Reply #4 on : Fri August 12, 2011, 10:31:17

I don't think that hating the project Hoffenheim is soulless. Even though it's obviously that you need financial backing to play in Bundesliga, there are several clubs who can achieve that without being the pet of some kind of investor. Of course, small clubs just are not allowed to give up but it is no fair competition if you compare for example Hoffenheim to a club with big tradition like Rot-Weiß Essen which is struggling with financial issues for a long time. The soul of football is something which you can't buy. Having sponsors is one thing, having one single investor putting millions and millions into one club out of pure boredom and breeding it up entirely is another.

Les
Posts: 6

Re: Hated club, hard to handle
Reply #3 on : Fri August 12, 2011, 19:49:42

I didn't say hating a pet project team is soulless, but dismissing any small club in these terms..."However, there simply is none [tradition] since the club was never important at all."..is soulless.

Vanni, you said "a club with big tradition like Rot-Weiß Essen", does that imply that if a team doesn't have some historical value then they should be contemptuously dismissed? It just sounds a little arrogant to me, "you have no history so don't deserve to ever have any".

I understand the dismissal of Hoffenheim as a financially doped club, but it's the "you've never been important at all" line I dislike as if small clubs have no right to elevate themselves. In the modern game, it's almost impossible to rise up the divisions without a significant cash investment.

To be fair, my first team Hull City rose through the leagues in England without breaking the bank (they foolishly did that AFTER reaching the Premier League) so it can be done, but it would gall me if they were dismissed as a 'never important' team by fans of a club who have won the European Cup in recent memory as if a small club has no right tp change that history.

Just sounds a little arrogant, and that's something I've never associated with Dortmund fans. That's a Bayern mentality to me.

Vanni
Posts: 6

Re: Hated club, hard to handle
Reply #2 on : Fri August 12, 2011, 19:56:37

Ok, now I got your point and notice that we are at the same page.

Maybe I found the wrong words to express what I wanted to say. Basically, it's not about the club having no history, but about stepping up to the first league only because of the investor (cause to be honest, there would have been no way for Hoffenheim to get to Bundesliga without him). A club making it through the leagues is perfectly fine with me, but then, it should be done without the involvement of someone like Hopp.

Hope you got what I meant and I see that it can be read in an arrogant way but let me ensure that this was not meant when writing the text.

Les
Posts: 6

Re: Hated club, hard to handle
Reply #1 on : Fri August 12, 2011, 22:23:33

I understand you Vanni.

Heja BVB